The Essential Guide to NavisWorks
Paul Walker Autodesk
PM304-1
This course covers the essential knowledge required to use NavisWorks effectively. Covering all major aspects of the product, this session will provide those new to NavisWorks with an insight into some of the key features that will benefit your business. More experienced users will learn how to create Search Sets which can be used in the core Roamer, plus modules Presenter, Clash Detective and TimeLiner; create punch/snag lists from your review sessions; how to use environment lights and backgrounds; create custom clash tests; and techniques for quick creation of 4D simulations.
About the Speaker:
Paul is the Technical Marketing Manager for the NavisWorks product and has worked for NavisWorks for 6 years in Technical Services, with responsibilities covering support and learning, testing and QA.
The Essential Guide to NavisWorks
NavisWorks is the hub of any multi-disciplinary AEC project, enabling you to unite 3D CAD data from disparate and competing sources into a single model environment, then link external data sources to create a complete Building Information Model. NavisWorks enables you and your clients to freely navigate anywhere in the BIM project in real time. Powerful interference detection and management allows you to identify and resolve issues whilst the project is still digital, saving time and money. Materials, lighting, RPC content and backgrounds can quickly and easily be applied to create compelling renderings that simulate reality to assist in selling your design intent. Combine all of this with construction schedules for 4D planning to predict buildability, and very quickly you can see how much power this software provides you. In this session Im going to show you some essential techniques that will not only save us time here, but you can also apply these techniques to any project you work on. The aim here is to be efficient and flexible - thereby saving you time, (which we all know = money) and enabling you to respond quickly to changes (which we all know are inevitable!). So lets get started. The specifics covered in this session are: Combine and manage project and session data using the NWF file format. Create intelligent groups of objects for repeated use on multiple projects, using the Find Items tool. Override speeds and use shortcut keys to increase effectiveness of 3D model navigation. Work with viewpoints and identify override techniques to aid communication of design intent. Quickly produce animations using viewpoints as key frames. Produce external rendered images quickly and easily using a few Presenter tips. Create punch/snag lists using the Redline Tags tool. Create custom clash tests for re-use on similar projects. Quickly create a 4D construction simulation.
Combine and Manage Project and Session Data using NWF files (1)
NavisWorks has three main file extensions, NWD, NWF and NWC. NWC files are cache files containing conversion data only (i.e. they contain the relevant data necessary to convert the CAD file into the NavisWorks format). NWC files can be exported directly out of supported CAD applications, including AutoCAD, Revit, MAX and Viz, MicroStation and ArchiCAD. By default they are also created automatically whenever you read a CAD file into NavisWorks this will actually speed up the process when next opening that CAD file (provided that it hasnt been modified), as the cache file can be used. This is especially noticeable when you are opening a project containing tens or even hundreds of CAD files. This brings us onto NWF files, which are reference files and contain no geometry. They contain pointers back to the original files that you open and append plus anything you do with the model in NavisWorks. It is recommended to save a master NWF file for your project once youve appended all of your CAD files. Subsequent opening of the NWF will then reopen each file actually its a little more intelligent than this, it will check to see if there is a corresponding NWC file and checks whether the CAD file has been modified since last converted. If it has, the CAD file will be re-read and re-cached. If it hasnt, the cache file will be used, speeding up the loading process.
The Essential Guide to NavisWorks
Finally we have the NWD file format. This is a complete data set, containing all of the geometry and anything you do with the model in NavisWorks. It is highly compressed and can be secured with password protection. The NWD file is the recommended format for sharing the entire project with all stakeholders, enabling individual disciplines to see how their design fits within the overall project they can be reviewed in the free viewer, Freedom, or if you need to add markup and carry out full analysis of the project then the full product may be used. So lets take a look at these file formats in practice: Were going to start with three NWC files exported from Revit Architecture, Revit Structure and Revit MEP. These could however be any combination of supported file formats/applications. For an up to date list of supported formats and applications, look at our website: http://www.navisworks.com/support/formats * * This information may in future be found on www.autodesk.com Exercise One 1. Open the file, Structure.nwc. As, and save as Conference Center.nwf. This is our master NWF project file which references the latest NWC files exported from Revit. 5. Lets create a couple of standard viewpoints that will be relevant to all who view the project and save these into the master NWF file.
2. Append the file, MEP.nwc. 3. Append the file, Architecture.nwc. 4. Now we have the complete project appended into a single scene, we can save this as an NWF. Go to File > Save
Create Intelligent Groups of Objects Using Find Items
Building Information Modeling is a term that has become synonymous with applications like Revit. But BIM doesnt stop there. This information can be utilized throughout the full lifecycle of the building. NavisWorks enables you to interrogate and utilize this information throughout the design, build and operation stages without the need for the design application. One of the first processes you can do with your single project model is to create intelligent groups of like objects. This makes it easier to review and analyze your project at each stage. The recommended way to achieve this is to use the Find Items tool to search for items having a common property or combination of properties. Exercise Two 1. Click on one of the viewpoints showing the glass-faced end of the building. 2. Select one of the sections glass in the view. In the Properties control bar on the right, under the Item tab you will see the Item name is Glazed. Lets use
this property to define a search condition to find all glazing. 3. Click on the Find Items button. 4. From the Category drop down select, Item (this being the name of the tab in the Properties control bar).
The Essential Guide to NavisWorks
5. From the Property drop down select, Name (identifying that we wish to look at the name of each item). 6. From the Conditions drop down select, Contains (choose this as we are not only looking for an exact match (in which case we would have selected =) but any name containing Glazed).
7. In the Value field type Glazed, then press Enter (Glazed being the search term were looking for). 8. As we arent sure whether all item names will be spelt with a capital G, we can search for the term ignoring case sensitivity. Uncheck the Match Case option to do this. 9. Click the Find All button to perform the search.
In the scene, all of the items satisfying this search condition will be selected and highlighted in blue. The Properties control bar will show you the number of items currently selected, i.e. the number of items having the word Glazed in their name. 10. Look around the building to check that all glass has been selected with this search condition. You will notice that the glass in some of the windows has not been selected. Therefore they have not met our search condition. Were going to need to build a more complex find condition to include these windows.
11. Select
one of the windows and
then click the View Selected button. 12. In the Selection Tree the window is highlighted, 78 x 54. Click on the + to the left of this to expand the window. 13. The windows comprise a Solid component (the glass) and a Composite Part (the frame). Click on Solid to select the window glass. Look in the Properties control bar and you will see that the Item does not have a Name
The Essential Guide to NavisWorks
property, which is what we were searching for earlier. We can however see that the item has a Material property value of Glass. We can therefore use this condition to find all of these window panes.
16. From the Property drop down select, Material. 17. From the Conditions drop down select, =. 18. In the Value field type Glass, then press Enter. If we leave this as is, the two conditions would be ANDed together, i.e. both conditions would need to be true for an item in order for it to be selected. We dont want this. We require one condition OR the other to result in an item being selected.
14. Click on the Find Items button again (if youve closed the control bar). Our previous search condition should still be there. 15. Click under Item in the Category column and select Item from the drop down.
19. Right click on the second Item and select Or Condition from the context menu.
20. Click the Find All button. 21. Zoom out and you will see that all of the glass has now been selected.
Once we have defined a search and found the items we wish to group together, we can then save the selected items as a Selection Set (a static group of items), or a Search Set (a dynamic group of items). Search sets are much more powerful and WILL save you time, especially if your project files are continuing to be updated and revised. 22. With your search defined and the resulting items selected, open the Selection Sets control bar. 23. Right click in the Selection Sets control bar and select, Save Current Search. 24. With the search set created, rename this as Window Glass.
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Whenever you select this search set, the search will be performed on the current model and select all items that meet the conditions, including any additional window glass that has subsequently been added to the project, hence why we refer to search sets as dynamic. NOTE: A further benefit of using search sets is that they can be exported and used on other projects. If you have a number of generic searches then, having defined them once, they can be saved and re-used time and time again. 25. Go to File > Import > Search Sets XML. 26. Browse to the Training Examples directory and choose, Conference Center - Search Sets.xml, then click Open. The pre-defined search sets for this project can now be found in the Selection Sets control bar. 27. As these search sets will be of use to all who review the project, lets save these into the master NWF file.
Increase Effectiveness of 3D Model Navigation
NavisWorks provides 9 navigation modes. Rather than constantly changing between all of these modes, you can be effective most of the time with just 2 modes, namely Walk and Orbit. Before getting onto these, heres a little tip. Sometimes when you append files on a large project the automatically calculated speeds can be too high, making it very difficult to control navigation. If you go to Viewpoint > Edit Current Viewpoint, you can adjust your Linear and Angular Speeds. Alternatively, you can set a global default to always override your speed. Youll find this under Tools > Global Options > Viewpoints > Default Linear and Angular Speeds. With these enabled, each time you save a viewpoint these settings will be applied. Walking is most effectively controlled by a mouse, although if youre familiar with a spaceball, or space navigator, then these can also be extremely useful. Here well concentrate on using a mouse: The basics of walking are simple, walk forwards, backwards and turn left to right. Hold down the Shift key whilst doing this and youll double your speed, allowing you to cover greater distances quicker. Using the mouse wheel, scroll backwards and forwards to tilt your head up and down (respectively) allowing you to see above and below you. Use the mouse wheel as a button and you can pan the camera in the direction you move the mouse.
To increase the realism of your navigation experience, there are a number of tools that can be employed, for example Collision Detection and Gravity. These will stop you from walking through objects in the scene and pull you down to the ground. One application of these is to enable walking up and down stairs. Orbit is a camera centric mode, which means that you are controlling the camera when you move the mouse. This mode has the world up locked, which means you always remain upright, no matter which angle you are viewing from. The camera will orbit around a focal point which is either set automatically, or you can set it manually.
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Use the Focus button to select an item of interest and the camera will center on that item, allowing you to orbit around it. Use the mouse wheel to zoom in to and out from the focal point. Use the mouse wheel as a button and again you can pan the camera in the direction you move the mouse.
The Zoom Box mode can also be useful for zooming into a specific area of the model, especially if youve used the View All command previously. Finally, the Turntable mode can be used if you wish to take a 360 degree view of the model, or part of the model, from a set viewing angle.
Use Viewpoints to Communicate Design Intent
Viewpoints not only contain a camera position, they can also contain color and transparency overrides, hidden items, section planes, navigation speeds and modes, and collision detection settings. These options can be set on a per-view basis, or they can be set as a global option. Go to Tools > Global Options > Viewpoints. Lets look at the two saved attributes, Hide/Required and Override Materials. Without these options being set, then a saved viewpoint will not store any details of the material overrides (color and transparency) or items hidden at the time of saving the viewpoint. When you select such a viewpoint, the camera position will change, however you will see the model in its current state, regardless of whether any overrides have been made since it was saved. When you have these saved attribute options enabled, then you guarantee that when someone reviews your viewpoints, they will see the model exactly as you intended. Lets look at an example: Exercise Three 1. Open the file, Conference Center.nwf. 2. Navigate to any view of the model and save a viewpoint named, Camera Only. 3. Right click on the viewpoint and select Edit. Note that the Saved Attributes are disabled. 4. In the Selection Sets control bar, select Exterior Brickwork. 5. Right click on the highlighted brickwork in the main view, and then select Override Color. Select pale yellow and click OK. Press the Escape (Esc) key to unselect everything. 6. Go to Tools > Global Options > Viewpoints and tick both the Hide/Required and Override Material options. Click OK. 7. Navigate to another position and save a viewpoint named, Yellow Brickwork. 8. Select the Exterior Brickwork selection set again, and change the color to pale blue.
9. Save another viewpoint this time named, Blue Brickwork. 10. Now select the Architecture.nwc file in the selection tree, and then go to Edit > Hide Item. 11. Save a final viewpoint named, Architecture Hidden. 12. When you click on each of the viewpoints, Yellow Brickwork, Blue Brickwork or Architecture Hidden, the model is displayed exactly as you had saved it, as we had saved these attributes with the viewpoint. 13. Now click on the viewpoint, Camera Only. You will notice that the camera position changes, however it does not show the model in its original colors (as it was when we saved the viewpoint), but with the overrides of the previous viewpoint. Click on one of the other saved viewpoints and then back to this one. Again you will see the camera
The Essential Guide to NavisWorks
position change with the viewpoint overrides applied.
previous
14. Save the file as a separate NWF file, Color Options.nwf
By understanding how these options work means that you can fully utilize viewpoints to communicate your design intent.
Produce Animations Using Viewpoints as Key Frames
There are two methods by which to create animations in NavisWorks. Firstly you can record you navigation through the model, and secondly you can create key frames and allow NavisWorks to interpolate between them. Each method has its own place. If you are animating an action that can be performed easily with one of the navigation tools, for example spinning the model, or require sweeping curves then interactive recording is the right option. If however your camera can follow a linear path, then you can quickly and easily use viewpoints as key frames. Lets look at both in turn: Exercise Four 5. Click the Stop button once the model 1. Open the file, Conference Center.nwf. has completed a 360 degree revolution. 2. Click on the View All button, and then 6. The animation is saved automatically in use the Orbit tool to look slightly down the Viewpoints control bar. on the model. 7. Click Play to re-run the animation. 3. Select the Turntable navigation mode. 4. Click on the Record button, and then spin the model slowly. Now well create a series of viewpoints which will be our key frames and allow NavisWorks to do the rest for us. 8. Navigate towards one corner of the surround, looking back at the building. 9. Select the Walk navigation mode, and then save your first viewpoint. 10. Walk around a third of the way along the surround, looking in a similar direction to the first viewpoint, and then save your second viewpoint. 11. Walk further along and tilt your head up to frame the glass section of the building, and then save your third viewpoint. 12. Walk past the end of the surround and then look back towards the building. Save your fourth viewpoint. 13. Pan the camera up until you are just above the building then tilt your head down to look down on the building. Save you final viewpoint. 14. Right click in the Viewpoints control bar and select, Add Empty Animation. 15. Drag your five viewpoints into the empty animation, each now being a key frame. 16. Right click on the animation and select, Edit. Check that the duration is reasonable and change if necessary. 17. Playback the animation to see the results. NavisWorks will automatically transition the camera between each key frame. 18. Save the file as Animation.nwf.
A good tip for creating animations is to first create a storyboard. Record each section of the storyboard using the most appropriate method (interactive recording or key frames) and then join them together by dragging one onto another. To avoid any transition between sections, try inserting a cut. If you do want sections to join together, try using the last frame of one section as the first frame of the next section.
The Essential Guide to NavisWorks
Produce External Rendered Images with A Few Presenter Tips
NavisWorks allows you to add materials, lighting, backgrounds and RPC to your models, whether to enhance the interactive experience, or to create photorealistic output. The beauty of NavisWorks is that you continue to use the same data set that youre familiar with and its easy to use without requiring any specialist CAD or rendering skills though an eye for knowing what looks good always helps! We saw earlier how to create generic search sets for groups of like items, and we can use these search sets here. We can create a generic palette of materials that match the materials of our search sets. In doing so, we can then use rules to instantly apply the materials to a significant amount, if not all, of the items in the model. Light studios are a pre-defined collection of lights that work well together. With a simple drag and drop you can change the entire look and feel of the model. Various light studios are available out of the box enabling a range of instant effects from sun studies to the most realistic environment lighting. A range of backgrounds and effects can be applied. Similar to lighting, the most realistic are environment backgrounds. Lets look at these in combination: Exercise Five 1. Open the file, Conference Center.nwf and select one of the saved external viewpoints. 2. In the Materials tab, right click and Load the pre-defined Conference Center.nwp palette file. This saves us from having to drag each material from the archives. Each material has also been named the same as its corresponding Search Set. 3. Go to the Rules tab. Select the option to Map Presenter materials to Selection Sets by name. Un-tick the option to Apply to current selection only, and then click Apply. The materials will be automatically applied to the items in each corresponding search set. 4. Go to the Effects tab. Expand the Recommended > Background archive
and drag Environment shader into the palette on the right. 5. Expand the Recommended > Environments > Panorama archive and drag Sky into the palette on the right. You will see the background is now a bright blue sky over a desert. If you navigate now, you will also notice that the background is interactive and moves with the model. 6. Go to the Lighting tab. Expand the Recommended archive and drag the Environment Light Studio into the palette on the right. Double click on the Environment light and change the Intensity value to 2 (making the light brighter). 7. Save the file as Presenter.nwf.
Believe it or not, thats it! These are some of the basic steps required to produce great rendered images from your models. You would usually click on the Render button to render the current scene, however as were on a tight timeframe, theres a pre-rendered image in the Training Examples directory. You might be able to notice that theres much more depth to the shadowing as the light is being cast and bounced from every direction, much like the real world. Also the background and objects in the scene are all reflected in any reflective materials, like the glass windows, again further adding to the realism.
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To take your renderings further, you may wish to consider adding in a few RPC people and trees to add some life to the scene. Again, heres the same scene rendered with RPCs.
Create Punch/Snag Lists Using Redline Tags
Although NavisWorks can produce a single, compressed and secure NWD file for distribution to all stakeholders, allowing each of them to review the project individually, many customers will hold regular review sessions with all major stakeholders in the same room. By collaborating in this way they are able to review the project together and identify potential issues, which they can then discuss and agree on a course of action, there and then. NavisWorks makes this significantly easier by presenting the entire project in a single 3D scene which everyone involved can relate to. The real time navigation enables the review team to explore every inch of the project, with immediate access to the inherent building information. Being able to select a group of search sets and hide everything else at the click of a button, quickly isolates a specific part of the project for detailed review. Similarly using the sectioning tools allows you to isolate a specific region of the project for review. You can then use this section window to systematically traverse the entire model effectively breaking a large project into more manageable sections. During such a review session you need a method by which to record your findings along with any discussions and resolutions reached, and then be able to communicate these to a wider audience, including the CAD engineers for example, should design changes be required. The NavisWorks Redline Tag tool is such a method, and well look at this now: Exercise Six 1. Open the file, Conference Center.nwf. 2. Open the Redline tools and
select the Tag tool. 3. To add a redline tag, left click on the item you wish to tag and then make a second click away from the item, (preferably where the background is less busy). The tag will be drawn on screen and will be identified as number 1.
Simultaneously a new viewpoint will be created named, Tag View 1. The Add Comment dialog will also open automatically, allowing you to type details of why youve added this tag, instructions to team members etc. 4. Try hiding certain groups of objects and use section planes whilst navigating around the model and add a few more redline tags. 5. Save the file as Project review.nwf
We can then create a folder with todays date and drag all of our review session tags into it, keeping a record of what weve found and discussed. We can then save this to go back to it later or distribute it to other team members. We can also export the viewpoints as a HTML report (File > Export > Viewpoints Report HTML). This can be distributed to an even wider audience as they require no additional software, yet they can see a screenshot of the tagged item and any comments associated with it.
The Essential Guide to NavisWorks
I mentioned earlier that you could include instructions to team members. If you include an individuals, or a functions name in the comments, then those individuals/functions will be able to search for the tags associated to them, creating their own specific snag/punch list.
Combine and Manage Project and Session Data using NWF files (2)
At each of the previous sections you may have noticed that weve saved up a series of NWF files, each based on the same original dataset but the actions performed have been quite different. This is to demonstrate that once you have created your single model, it could be distributed to a varied audience, all of which may have differing objectives and reasons for using the model. NavisWorks is a collaborative solution and although people may be using the single model in different ways, we can unite their resultant files back into a single project file. Exercise Seven without duplicating the model geometry. 1. Open Conference Center.nwf. 2. Earlier we used the Append option to append in additional model files. Here we want to use the Merge option to merge all of the session data together Click Merge and select all of the other NWF files weve created. 3. We can now re-save this as Conference Center.nwf, our master project file.
Create Custom Clash Tests for Re-use on Similar Projects
How many times do you hear the phrase theres nothing wrong with my part of the model - its perfect? Everyone likes to believe what theyve produced is perfect, yet why then are there so many change requests submitted once a project is under construction? One reason is that although individual component parts may be perfect and error free in isolation, when they come together in a collaborative environment the issues are all too common. Lets face it, buildings are complex - Its no wonder we find conflicts between disciplines. NavisWorks enables you to combine the various disciplines, from disparate sources, into a single model environment. Clash Detective can then be used to identify any potential conflicts between the disciplines, giving you the opportunity to resolve these whilst the project remains in the digital stage. The potential savings in time and money are obvious. The best advice for defining clash tests is to search for clashes where you would expect to find them. Let Clash Detective help you, not replace you. If you try searching the entire model for everything that touches something else, you will be inundated with false positives items that are meant to touch. If however you define clash tests based on your real world experiences of where things go wrong and dont fit on site, then Clash Detective can help you find and resolve these quickly. The second best piece of advice is to define your clash tests using search sets. If you can create generic clash tests, using generic search sets, then you should be able to re-use these on similar projects. Lets look at how this can be done: Exercise Eight 1. Open the Conference Center.nwf file.
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2. In the Clash Detective, Select tab, set the selection tree view to Sets on both the Left and Right sides. 3. In the Left tree select, Supply Air System. 4. In the Right tree select, Structural Framing Steel. 5. Ensure Self Intersect is un-ticked on both sides (as we do not wish to clash check each side against itself).
6. The Run type should be set to Hard, looking for physical intersections between items on the left and items on the right. 7. The Tolerance should be set to 0.125, therefore we will ignore any clashes found with interferences less than 1/8 inch. 8. Click the Start button to perform the clash test. Five clashes should be found.
Now were not actually interested in the results in this instance, just remember that we found 5 clashes in this model. 9. Go to File > Export > Clash Test XML. 10. Browse to the directory, C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Application Data\NavisWorks 5\custom_clash_tests, and save the file naming it, Supply Air v Steel Framing. 11. Youll now need to restart NavisWorks for the change to take effect (dont save the changes). 12. Open the Conference Center.nwf file again. 13. On the Clash Detective, Select tab click on the Run Type drop down. Youll now find the Supply Air v Steel Framing test as an option. Select it and then click Start. 5 clashes are found.
What we have done here is to add all of the details required to perform this test into this now built-in option. We can perform this clash test on any project, without even needing the search sets, as these too are built into the clash test. We can also share the XML file we exported to other Clash Detective users so that they too can benefit from the work put into creating the test.
Quickly Create a 4D Construction Simulation
The NavisWorks TimeLiner module enables you to link your 3D model with a construction schedule to create a 4D simulation allowing you to experience the construction process before it begins. One of the most difficult aspects of linking your 3D model to your planning schedule is finding a common, unique identifier. In an ideal world the model would have the same naming convention as the schedule. Thats not always possible, so sometimes you will need to populate the schedule with unique identifiers from the model, such as Element IDs or Entity Handles. An alternative to this is to use search sets again. If we can give our sets the same name as the corresponding task in the schedule, then we can quickly link them together and create a simulation. Lets see how this works: Exercise Nine 1. In the TimeLiner Links tab, right click under the Name column and select Add Link > Microsoft Project MPX. 2. Browse to and select, Conference Center.mpx, and then click Open.
3. In the Field Selector dialog we map columns in TimeLiner with the corresponding columns in the schedule (MPX file). Set the Task Type External
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4.
5.
6. 7.
Field to, Text10. For all other fields we will use the default. Click OK. Right click on the New Link in the Name column, and select Rebuild Task Hierarchy from Link. Go to the Tasks tab. This will now be displaying all of the data imported from the MPX file. You will notice that each task has a start and end date. You may also have noticed that the task names once again correspond to the search sets we added earlier. Go to the Rules tab. Tick the option to Map TimeLiner Tasks from Column Name to Selection Sets
with the same name, matching case, and then click Apply. As this rule suggests, all items associated with a search set will be attached to the task of the same name. So lets see what weve created: 8. Go to the Simulate tab. 9. There is a timeline from the start to the end of the project, allowing you to look at the project at any point in time. Alternatively you can click the Play button to play back the entire simulation.
Summary
Weve reached the end of our whistle stop tour of NavisWorks. You now know how to: Use NWF files to manage your projects. Utilize the inherent property information of your models to create intelligent dynamic search sets that you will use time and time again throughout the project, and then re-use them on future projects. Efficiently navigate around your projects. Use viewpoints to create animations, and communicate your design intent. Increase the realism of your projects and produce compelling renderings. Use redline tags to create punch/snag lists. Ensure your projects fit together before theyre built. Experience the construction process before getting your feet dirty!
Thank you for your attendance. Good luck and enjoy total project control with NavisWorks.
